Start Here
Overview, training, admin access and contact details
Overview
What is Action Network?
It is the tool that XRUK uses for sending emails out to the movement. It is funded centrally and available to all local groups, and organises groups by Region/Nation. People can join either at the 'top' (i.e. at the XRUK level) by signing up on the website - or at the 'bottom' by searching for their Local Group of the LGmap.
How Local Groups fit in to XR's Action Network
You may be familiar with other email lists such at Mailchimp - so to point out the main difference with Action Network (and it may sound obvious!) is that it is a NETWORK!
Here is a little smapshot to explain...
For example : if someone joins the Birmingham email list, they automatically get subscribed 'UP' the network (to Midlands and UK lists). The benefit of this is that as more and more Local Groups use Action Network to recruit, then all these new subscribers end up on the XRUK list too - allowing for communication to the whole movement within the UK with a single email.
Also in this example this person will be on the 'Midlands' list which allows regional level organising too.
Campaign and Community Groups
Not shown on the diagram above are groups such as 'Deep Water', 'Digital Rebellion' or 'XR Walkers' - these also have separate emails list that sit just below the UK list and therefore also feed in to the total numbers of subscribers on the UK list. These lists are not utilised as much as they could be, so if you are in a community group and would like support to use your Action Network list, please get in touch.
There is a huge opportunity to grow the UK list
If 200 sub-groups (either Local Groups, Campaigns or Community groups) each recruited 25 new subscribers a month - that would be an additional 5000 people on the UK list per month.
Why use Action Network?
Why would a group choose to use XR's Action Network account, rather than alternatives such as Mailchimp?
Benefits
-
It's a network - when signing up for a local group email list, people are also subscribed to their region/nation and to the XRUK email list. They will therefore be informed of campaigns and activities locally, regionally and nationally. More detail of the structure of all the lists here.
-
Mobilisation - This means new Local Group sign ups add to the total on the UK list. This is critical for both mobilisation for big actions (e.g. The Big One), for awareness of ongoing campaigns and for training.
-
Fundraising - The full XRUK email list is very important for fundraising, the more we grow our list the more potential donors we have!
-
Security - all admins have their own account, so you don't have to share passwords. If someone leaves the movement, their admin access can be removed without having to change shared passwords.
-
You can have multiple Admins for your email list.
-
Support and training is available.
-
Action Network is GDPR compliant and anyone receiving an email can unsubscribe at any time.
Growing the list
As well as your own outreach work to get subscribers locally, being part of this network helps you pick up more subscribers because you lists is promoted via:
Barriers/Issues
-
In common with other mailing list systems, the data is stored on servers that we do not control, and that could be accessed by law enforcement authorities. For this reason, you should never store "spicy" information - such as data showing intention to take part in or to organise arrestable actions.
-
To become an Admin takes a bit of training, which can be a barrier to some Local Groups without someone with the time and skills (or determination!) to learn. But we have a very friendly training team who are happy to teach in 1-1 sessions and go at the pace that suits each individual.
Migrating to Action Network
If you currently use a list of emails in your 'contacts' or another mailing system like Mailchimp and want to migrate to using Action Network, there is support available to do this in a GDPR compliant way.
Training Request
Request training for yourself (or a small group) using this form
We provide:
- A quick overview session (10mins plus questions), suitable for Nation/Region or Local Group meetings to introduce people to Action Network as a essential tool for mobilisation and communication.
- Help with migration of data from your current system to Action Network.
- Focused 1hr basic training for your Local Group.
- Tailored help with any issue: forms, events, reports etc
Before Training Starts...
If you have requested the Focused 1hr basic training for your Local Group please read the following information. Don't worry if you don't understand it all, just come as prepared as you can.
If your group is already using Action Network, some of the following may already have been done.
Who are your admins?
Confirm the email address of those people requiring ‘Admin’ access to Action Network. You must use a personal email address and not a shared email account for this.
All admins will need to have signed the XR Volunteer Agreement, with the email addresses they will use as admins.
Contact email for your group
You must also have a group contact email address. Action Network software sends emails, but you still need an official address for people to reply to.
If you are part of a Local Group, this email should be listed on the Local Group Map. If the email (or other info) isn't correct, or your group isn't listed then contact map@extinctionrebellion.uk.
If you have lost access to your group email or would like a new one setting up in the style xxxx@extinctionrebellion.uk you can find about how to apply for a extinctionrebellion.uk email on this page
Note: please don't set up proton.me addresses (details of why). Protonmail.com addresses are fine.
Your Existing Mailing List
If you have an existing list of emails addresses - then we need to transfer that into Action Network, preferably before training. Let us know if you want to do this and we'll support you through this process.
Have something ready to send
When we meet you online for your training session we will want to take you through the entire process of writing and sending an email to your group. If would be beneficial to have some words already written regarding an upcoming event or action, that you are happy to be sent out during the training.
If you have an event coming up, that's ideal, if not then you could find pictures from previous actions or outline more general future plans.
Your local group welcome message
It is advised to have an email that gets sent automatically when someone new joins your list. We will set up a simple message for you before the training. You will be able to view and edit this during the training.
Is anybody out there?
For geographically based groups, we may be able to identify supporters who have signed up via the XRUK website with a postcode near you, but not yet joined your Local Group.
If you can, prepare a list of the first part of the postcode that provides the catchment for your Local Group (e.g. NG1-NG10). Here are two tools that might help with this task: Doogal postcode finder or this Google maps based tool
You're all set
You should now be ready to book in the training session, which is about an hour and by the end of it you will have created and sent out a mailing to your group.